<p>i also believe you may underestimate yourself. i also feel like there are wide gaps between your safeties, your matches and your reaches. there are many colleges in between your 'super reaches' and your realistic reaches that aren't as prestigious as brown or dartmouth but much more prestigious than the other colleges you listed. what major are you interested in? if you tell us we can make more specific suggestions (:</p>
<p>Williams is not the great outdoorsy school, it is athletic for a LAC but not in the sincethat you're thinking. Not everyone is playing a varsity sport, it's a very intellectual student body, #1, and it is far from extroverted. True they are an active and bounded community, but this isn't Ohio State or for comparability's sake, not nearly as extroverted as Boston College football and tailgating.</p>
<p>Before you dismiss arguably, the finest liberal arts college in the country, I want you to SERIOUSLY take a closer look, you need to visit it, preferably once the school year has started, that is the only way to get a true image of Williams, driving through while the campus is dead is garunteed to turn off about half of prospective students. Just visit!</p>
<p>Also, thank you for adding more reaches, and I would say that you don't need 5 safeties. If you have one or two solid safeties that you LOVE then you wouldn't need 5 down there. If you need 5 then you obviously need to look deeper into those schools and decide where you want to go. The advice I'd give is from Joyce Mitchell...that is that you need to have 8 first choices, 8 schools you want to go to. If you can't find atleast those 8 schools that you love then you need to go back to the drawingboard.</p>
<p>It is a breath of fresh air to see someone who has such a good handle on what they want and isn't totally swayed by rankings alone. You have really thought this through!</p>
<p>I sort of disagree with Cre8ive. I love Williams, but it is outdoorsy, athletic, and extroverted. A great percentage of the student body are athletes, and the social scene revolves around athletic teams. I think Swarthmore might be a perfect super-reach and Haverford a great reach. Dartmouth, Middlebury, and Colgate are also full of extroverted types.</p>
<p>Also, Shiningstar bucknell and BC are also going to be fratty beer drinking type places. I think Haverford and Swarthmore should replace the two schools you are thinking of eliminating (Stonehill and Muhlenburg). I think Haverford might be the perfect fit.</p>
<p>Slipper, have you even been to BC?? BC doesn't even have frats, and I highly doubt beer is consumed any more/less than any other place (though after visiting Dartmouth I'm inclined to say less).</p>
<p>I know BC doesnt have frats but it is "white, preppy, and jocky." Its no Vassar or Haverford. Its an awesome school, it just might not be the right fit for shningstar. Or, perhaps, there are better fits. I think Dartmouth, Midd, Colgate also might not be the right fit for someone not wanting extroverted, outdoorsy, happy types.</p>
<p>Again, I ask: have you BEEN to BC or are you basing your judgements on hearsay?</p>
<p>I have and they tailgate for BC football 2 months before the season starts, football takes over the entire area, and wasn't it 40 BC students who were arrested for drinking violations and set three cars on fire b/c the Pats won the Super Bowl, give me a break!</p>
<p>I have been to BC, and three of my friends (transfers to Dartmouth) went there. </p>
<p>To back this up, here is a synopsis of BC campus life on Princeton Review.com. I am not saying its accurate, but it does reveal which way the school tilts. </p>
<p>The students at BC describe themselves as looking like they have all just stepped out of an "Abercrombie or J. Crew catalog." As one student notes, "All of the students here look exactly alike. There's pretty much no diversity." Undergrads call their classmates "very nice," while at the same time "rich and cliquish." And while BC certainly is objectively more ethnically and racially diverse than many of its peer institutions, its undergrads by and large don't see it. "This is a pretty cliquey school and groups are formed from freshman year," laments one typical survey respondent. "There's little interaction between different cliques. This is definitely not an ethnically diverse school, and there is often tension between races." For those wishing to break from this standard, student groups often provide a welcoming opportunity to reach across boundaries, regardless of race and background. "The most important thing to do is to get involved with lots of groups, clubs, or sports so that you always have another outlet."</p>
<p>Whoa, holy misinformation ...</p>
<p>cre8tive: No, that was not BC. I'm pretty sure it was Northeastern students you are talking about, maybe BU but definitely not BC. Mayor Menino actually used BC as the "good example" when scolding Northeastern/BU, whichever it was for their riots.</p>
<p>Tailgating 2months before the season starts?? Uh, that would mean right now?! Makes no sense, obviously not true.</p>
<p>slipper, OK. Well if you have honestly been to BC and that was your experience fine. It hasn't been mine (although I had a friend transfer to Dartmouth too, wonder if its the same person. He is unhappy there too.) </p>
<p>As for the princeton review, it simply can't be trusted. They also said BC was one of the most homophobic schools in the country when our gay rights march was one of the biggest in the country. The charge that BC is not diverse is easily put to rest by plain stats: last year AHANA (minority students) were 27% and I've heard they will be over 33% this year. This is definitely more diverse than most universities (and way more than most LACs) in New England.</p>
<p>BC_,</p>
<p>I agree that BC has changed ALOT in the last few years and has significantly increased diversity. I think my point was that this posted might not be the best fit for any of Dartmouth, Colgate, Middlebury, etc if she doesnt really like the "extroverted" outdoorsy types and in a way this includes BC as well. While BC has changed, its still not Vassar or Harvard at all in terms of the type of student who goes there. Shiningstar might be happier at a place like Haverford, with a lower key social scene and a quieter student body.</p>
<p>I noticed Skidmore was on the list but what is skidmore good for?</p>
<p>As you're a low-income valedictorian with a 2100 I think you're being too hard on yourself. The Ivies you have aren't "super-reaches," nothing short of HYP is a super-reach for you. Have you thought about, say, JHU or Georgetown (both match-reaches)? The top 3 LACs (Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams) might be good reaches to consider. For safeties I'd recommend ditching most of the overpriced private schools and applying to SUNY Binghampton and Stony Brook.</p>
<p>Wow!! Just got home from work and was surprised to see so many helpful responses!! You guys are the greatest, CC takes a lot of heat from many people but this is really what it's about;helping people out. Everyone's opinions have been great and made me think about stuff I never would have considered, so for that, thanks to everyone!!</p>
<p>Now to adress some stuff more specifically. Maybe I was too general about the whole outdoorsy extroverted thing. I'm not saying I would rule out a school simply because of that. I'm not a hermit either. Academics is a main focus for me, but I'm a friendly person and I like to have fun too. I just don't want a school where sports and drinking dominante or are considered more important than learning.</p>
<p>superchice: I agree with you about the wide gaps. It's not on purpose, I guess it's just kind of how things worked out. I can't really find any schools that I love to fill those gaps. And I'm interested in history and scondary education.</p>
<p>As far as this whole debate over Williams and BC goes, I think it's going to come down to the visit. When I visit this fall, it's all going to depend on what kind of vibe i get, and whether or not I feel like I would fit in there. So that settles that, although it was great hearing all of your opinions about the two schools in regards to the predominate student populations. </p>
<p>pyroclastic: Binghampton is way too big for me and my safeties actual won't be that overpriced. By the time you factor in financial aid and merit awards at my safety schools they'll probably end up being cheaper than any SUNY school. When I visited Lycoming this summer they waived my app fee and the dean of admissions pretty muc guaranteed me a 16000 scholarship and told me about another merit scholarship for 5000 that I wshould apply to. Considering the fact that Lycoming's tution is around 30,000 this will make it pretty cheap to attend and I would be happier there than at Binghampton or Stony Brook. </p>
<p>Slipper: I know Haverford would probably be a good fit for me but it's really pushing the limit from home. I'm having a hard time getting my mom to be okay with schools that are more than 3 hours away. Haverford is probably like 6. I'm not sure if i would want to be that far. </p>
<p>I not sure what else to ask you guys about. I have to really sit down and think about my list and where I want to go from here, do a little more research and make some changes.</p>
<p>actually i think williams is a pretty outdoorsy school. its surrounded by mountains and .. outdoorsiness. a lot of students spend their free time skiing, hiking, biking, etc. a lot of student activities take place outside.</p>